Visa extension nightmare.

[sandyf]

My visa extension was due due to expire in July at a point when I would be back in the UK. It has always been a bit of a nuisance so this year i thought I would let it expire and return on a single entry Non Imm O which would then establish an extension renewal around the end of October. I sent in the application by post and 3 days later got my pasport back. I just glanced at the dates on the visa and thought no more about it, It wasn't until I arrived back in Thailand that I noticed that the IO had stamped me in as Non Imm B and sure enough that is what was on the visa. From some of the comments I had seen on here it didn't strike me as much of a problem, big mistake, should have gone straight to immigration and checked.
Yesterday morning I went to the bank, got the statement and headed off to immigration in Sri Ratcha. Had to wait best part of an hour to get to the desk only to be told that they couldn't do a retirement extension on a B visa, must be O. I was told I would need to go to the MFA and get it changed and if I came back in the morning she would accept the same paperwork. I said I wasn't sure we could get to Bangkok in time so she reluctantly agreed to wait till Friday morning otherwise I would require a new bank letter.
As we left Sri Ratcha my wife said she would prefer to try and get it sorted so I did a Google maps and the estimate was that we would get to the MFA about 2pm so we decided to go for it. It was about 2.15 by the time we parked and got into the building. The first desk didn't have a clue and said to go to information on the second floor. That desk said we were in the wrong building and that we would have to go to Immigration further along the road. I pointed out that we had been told by immigration that I had to go to MFA and she then said that there was a visa office on the third floor and that we could ask there, the police then allowed us up the stairs.
I explained the problem and the guy said we had come to the right place, understood the problem and could speak very good English. Then it went downhill, said I had to leave the passport and come back for it sometime next week. I explained about the time restriction on the bank letter and said I really need to get back to immigration the following morning. He said he didn't really want to do anything without hearing from London and that there wasn't anyone available to authorise the change but he would see what he could do if we were to wait a bit. We went downstairs and had something to eat and came back up shortly after 3pm. The guy came over and said they hadn't heard from London and just hang on. In a short space of time 2 of his female colleagues came out individually and asked me what information I had sent with my visa application, the guy had asked the same question when I first spoke to him and 2 immigration officers at Sri Ratcha had asked the same question. They all seemed very surprised when I had said just copy of marriage certificate and ID card.
When they put the closed notice on the counter I thought we were faced with another trip back to Bangkok and then down to Sri Ratcha but fortunately not. He called me over and I was asked to fill in a request form to change visa category and then a few minutes later handed my passport back which now has a stamp changing the category to O. He then said he hadn't heard from London and asked if I had kept a copy of my visa application. I said I had but it was at home and we had come straight from Sri Ratcha, all finished and no charge.

This morning it was back to Sri Ratcha. I thought everything was a bit quiet and I was first in the queue. Different IO and she pulled a frown when looking at the docs and went to the senior IO. Fortunately that was the same one as yesterday and she explained the position and it was all wrapped up very quickly apart from no passport. All the senior staff were tied up in meetings and I have to back for the passport tomorrow afternoon, not over yet.
With immigration and trip to the MFA lasting around 11 hours and then 2 further trips to immigration I will be paying a bit more attention to the detail in the future.

 

Bottom line here is that extensions are visa specific and to the person that posted recently asking why on the TM7 he has to keep putting details of his 8 year old redundant visa, there's the answer, its not redundant.

Edited October 19, 2017 by sandyf

[glegolo]

Reading your "report", made me remember the old swedish say that goes "you need to be on the field in order to play football".....

 

Glegolo

[elviajero]

The immigration office could have given you an extension of stay based on retirement because the only requirement is that the visa you enter the country with is a non-immigrant visa. However, some offices won't do it for category 'B' visa holders.

[BritTim]

3 hours ago, sandyf said:

With immigration and trip to the MFA lasting around 11 hours and then 2 further trips to immigration I will be paying a bit more attention to the detail in the future.

I would have bought the staff at MFA some nice cakes as a think you. They were willing to bend the rules a bit to help you. Lots of officials would have insisted on sticking to the letter of the rules, and you would have been faced with going back next week (plus other complications).

[geistfunke]

In Bangkok we colud change from "Visa O and Extension O" to extension "B" without any problems.
(No change of Visa category)

[moe666]

Doesn't sound like much of a nightmare.

[ericthai]

As been said many times. Always check to make sure you got the correct visa, stamp etc.

IO's make mistakes, I've been stamped in for 90 days when I should have only received 30 days.

It's their mistake but your problem!!! 

 

[Tanoshi]

8 hours ago, elviajero said:

The immigration office could have given you an extension of stay based on retirement because the only requirement is that the visa you enter the country with is a non-immigrant visa. However, some offices won't do it for category 'B' visa holders.

Absolutely correct.

Police Orders 327-2557.

2.22 In the case of retirement:
Each permission shall be granted for no more
than one year.
The alien:
(1) Must have been granted a non immigrant visa (NON IM).

[Essecola]

I wouldn't ever want to be in a position where I needed any service from the Sri Racha immigration office. Just like there are rogue entry points to the country such as airports and Poipet, there are also rogue immigration offices.

[Briggsy]

@sandyf

 

Be aware that as soon as Sri Racha immigration say "mai dai" to anything, there is always another option. That is to go down the road to Jomtien as they are both branches of Chonburi immigration. On more than occasion I have been told something is impossible and been given the runaround by Sri Racha only to go to Jomtien and have everything sorted. The fact that my address is in Sri Racha is irrelevant, it is the province that matters.

 

A previous poster described Sri Racha as "rogue". I totally disagree. A rogue office would break the rules. Rather, Sri Racha, or some of the staff there, look for a miniscule reason to say "no" usually by sending you away to gather more documents.

 

I hope this helps anybody in a similar situation.

[bazza73]

Just shows you cannot be too careful when dealing with Immigration. It's the ones who try to wing it that get into doo-doo. The fussbudgets never have a problem.

I employ an agent. That way, I don't have to bother.

[MyFriend You]

16 hours ago, sandyf said:

It wasn't until I arrived back in Thailand that I noticed that the IO had stamped me in as Non Imm B

This started the whole rigamarole - so I assume you will check first before departing the desk next time??  Definately not the first time IO's stamped the wrong permit to stay type.

[Mattd]

1 hour ago, TunnelRat69 said:

This started the whole rigamarole - so I assume you will check first before departing the desk next time??  Definately not the first time IO's stamped the wrong permit to stay type.

In this instance, the IO at the airport stamped him in correctly, it was the visa that was issued in error as a non b.

[YetAnother]

3 hours ago, Briggsy said:

The fact that my address is in Sri Racha is irrelevant, it is the province that matters.

is that true ? up here in chiang rai, i was/am under the impression i am chained to my local IO and cannot use others in my province 

[TKDfella]

8 hours ago, Tanoshi said:

Absolutely correct.

Police Orders 327-2557.

2.22 In the case of retirement:
Each permission shall be granted for no more
than one year.
The alien:
(1) Must have been granted a non immigrant visa (NON IM).

I think I must be missing something because the OP says he had a Non-B. As you correctly write it's the Non-IM that's important. I have Non-B and extend yearly for 1 year. So I don't understand why the OP could not get an extension. Someone help me on this one?

[Briggsy]

6 minutes ago, YetAnother said:

is that true ? up here in chiang rai, i was/am under the impression i am chained to my local IO and cannot use others in my province 

Please re-read. I suspect you have speed read and misunderstood. Chiang Rai province has how many full  immigration offices? One, I believe. Therefore you are indeed tied to Chiang Rai immigration. The others are border posts with limited services offered.

 

Also, if you are renewing an annual extension, it will be difficult to switch offices within a province. The OP was not renewing but starting a process.

[ubonjoe]

4 minutes ago, TKDfella said:

So I don't understand why the OP could not get an extension. Someone help me on this one?

Because the immigration officer insisted he needed a non-o visa to apply for his extension instead of the non-b he was incorrectly issued by the embassy.,

[ubonjoe]

6 minutes ago, Briggsy said:

Please re-read. I suspect you have speed read and misunderstood. Chiang Rai province has how many full  immigration offices? One, I believe.

Actually there are 2 offices in Chiang Rai province. The main office is located in Mae Sai and another one in muang Chiang Rai.

[Briggsy]

6 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

Actually there are 2 offices in Chiang Rai province. The main office is located in Mae Sai and another one in muang Chiang Rai.

Thank you for the correction.

[sandyf]

14 hours ago, BritTim said:

I would have bought the staff at MFA some nice cakes as a think you. They were willing to bend the rules a bit to help you. Lots of officials would have insisted on sticking to the letter of the rules, and you would have been faced with going back next week (plus other complications).

That would be one way of looking at it, the other is that the embassy got it wrong and they wanted to keep it low key.

I called it the MFA but it is in fact the Ministry of Consular Affairs.

[sandyf]

18 hours ago, elviajero said:

The immigration office could have given you an extension of stay based on retirement because the only requirement is that the visa you enter the country with is a non-immigrant visa. However, some offices won't do it for category 'B' visa holders.

That may be your interpretation but the man at the Ministry of Consular Affairs , MFA is more common, agreed with the interpretation made by immigration in that a one year extension on a Non Imm B visa can only be done on a business basis.

 

 

 

[sandyf]

12 hours ago, moe666 said:

Doesn't sound like much of a nightmare.

Maybe not at your age and medical condition, but spare a thought for us that are not so well off.

[sandyf]

1 hour ago, Mattd said:

In this instance, the IO at the airport stamped him in correctly, it was the visa that was issued in error as a non b.

Exactly, and even if I had spotted it in the UK there was not much I could have done. I needed my passport to fly to Scotland for a wedding and we flew back to Thailand straight after the wedding.

The mistake I made was not going to immigration straight away, I would still have had to go to Bangkok but it would have taken a lot of the stress out of it, something I really need to avoid.

[ubonjoe]

22 minutes ago, sandyf said:

I called it the MFA but it is in fact the Ministry of Consular Affairs.

It is the Department of Consular Affairs which is part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

[BritTim]

25 minutes ago, sandyf said:

15 hours ago, BritTim said:

I would have bought the staff at MFA some nice cakes as a think you. They were willing to bend the rules a bit to help you. Lots of officials would have insisted on sticking to the letter of the rules, and you would have been faced with going back next week (plus other complications).

That would be one way of looking at it, the other is that the embassy got it wrong and they wanted to keep it low key.

I called it the MFA but it is in fact the Ministry of Consular Affairs.

On a point of information, MFA is Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and consular responsibilities is just one of the functions of the ministry.

 

As to whether they bent the rules to keep the mistake by the London Embassy quiet, I would doubt that. Officials are usually much more worried about whether they personally can be blamed than they are for the errors of those in other offices.

[sandyf]

1 minute ago, ubonjoe said:

It is the Department of Consular Affairs which is part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Stand corrected. I have always known it as MFA since I first went in 2008. It was my wife that called the Ministry of Consular Affairs from the traffic signs on the approach. The stamp in my passport is MFA.

[JayBird]

once the consulate gave me a visa with the passport number of someone else written on it.

 

Always triple check them.

[EcigAmateur]

3 hours ago, TunnelRat69 said:

This started the whole rigamarole - so I assume you will check first before departing the desk next time??  Definately not the first time IO's stamped the wrong permit to stay type.

 

Too complicated for some it seems... Easier to cry on the forum...

 

 

[roobaa01]

i read the op was married hence siracha could have issued a non-o to visit his wife instead of going to the mfa.

 

wbr

roobaa01

[ubonjoe]

3 minutes ago, roobaa01 said:

i read the op was married hence siracha could have issued a non-o to visit his wife instead of going to the mfa.

That was not possible since he already had a non-b visa entry. Only tourist visa and visa exempt entries can be changed to a non immigrant visa entry.